Most people are bewildered by what is going on in Greece. So am I. But here is a wily view from everyone’s favourite Serb Paleocon, Srdja Trifkovic, who explains how the whole manoeuvre looks like a quirky judo move to floor the opposition and so end up making the whole […]
In case readers here have missed it, my second Telegraph Blog contribution: Most people reading this website will have been brought up to believe that "liberal democracy" is a natural state of affairs. It trundles along in the background for the British public as for the Foreign Office, without needing […]
As readers here know, the Spiegel Online site is a fine way to find thoughtful pieces on the goings-on in Europe from a German perspective. Try these two for size. The first is an interview with Polish Central Bank Governor Marek Belka (who served for a while as a technocrat Prime Minister […]
A feisty but realistic article in the Guardian by Nikos Dimitriou looks at Greece’s deep problems whatever happens: Greece relies on imports, fuel and food especially. The agricultural sector has dropped to less than 4% of GDP – can enough be grown to feed the population? How many more businesses […]
A reader steers me towards this energetic and well informed stream of consciousness account of the Eurozone deal, over at Midwest Musings: And speaking of insurance, one has to wonder what this does to the very active CDS market of very unhappy memory–AIG–as this supposed deal with the banks is […]
Most readers of this website are interested in one way or another in ‘foreign affairs’. As I have described on different occasions here, the heart of international diplomacy is the state. That idea in its modern form emerged from the Peace of Westphalia. Here are some passages from my 2009 […]
Update it is sobering to see a long line of comments after such an article in a national newspaper, many of them buzzing away about issues far from the immediate points I made. Lots of not altogether focused Euro-scepticism out there. But this one from damage124 caught my amused eye: Unless […]
Alert! Google! An email has arrived from someone claiming to be a "Google Accounts Trust & Safety Authenticator": We regret to inform you that, starting from November 2011, Your Account will no longer allow you to send or welcome messages, files and pages due to malicious and spy wares activities detected on […]
In 1969, in her seminal work On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross eloquently detailed the five stages of dying – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance. It remains one of the most important contributions to our understanding of the final phase of life and will do much to explain […]
How many times do I need to argue that the ‘basic’ problem with the European Union is a failure to accept certain Realities? If you’re sick of hearing it from me, as well you might be, listen to John Kay over at the FT (Note: it’s painful to pay (horror) for […]
